Do you charge a W2P maintenance fee

[rachel@imageset.com]

I'm wondering if it is standard to charge customers for hosting their web-to-print sites. We charge for building the site and products, and we get income when somebody orders the print jobs. But there is work involved just to keep a site maintained.

Is this something you charge for? How much do you charge? What do you base the fees on?

Thanks,

Rachel Shepherd

[brent]

We do not charge a maintenance fee...in fact we do not even charge for the buildout of the site. Think of it as a little insurance policy to keep your customers. Once your customers are used to ordering all their printing from their site...they have the tendency to stay! They do not want to go to another printer who does not have web-to-print. They have been "trained."

[Mark H]

Rachel,

I charge based on the fixed costs that are directly related to the individual site, as well as a percentage of the overhead cost for the system. For example, there might be a programming fee for the setup, a monthly hosting fee for the server space, if there is a custom URL there's the domain registration fee (and maybe a security certificate as well), and (of course) the client needs to absorb some of my cost for the base system (whether I built it in house or bought something off the shelf).

Some people will tell you not to charge these fees. Instead, they will roll this overhead into their production side and hope to make up the cost there. However, I've found doing that is problematic as many customers compare just the print cost on a sheet/item basis which would inflate my costs greatly.

Also, I just like to be up front and show customers where their costs (and value) are in the products and services I offer.

Mark H

[Web2PrintGuy]

Hi Rachel,

I think it depends on the customer. I have seen some shops invest considerable time on a customer who never uses the system. If it's free, they will always say "sure, go ahead", after all it's not costing them anything. I know others who charge a small setup fee, but may waive the fee to repeat clients. I do think it makes sense to use as a selling advantage, something to close the sale.

Steve Ciesemier

[pcmodem]

If customers see free or a very small price. They do not see much value in what you are offering.

[brent]

If customers see free or a very small price. They do not see much value in what you are offering.

Until they actually use the system and see how much it speeds up the entire process and how easy and flawless it is to use. They can place orders at home, on vacation, etc. We have over 100 of our clients set up on our online system. They LOVE it!

So if they are happy WE are happy!

[pcmodem]

Brent,

Do you charge your customers for the W2P?

If so, Is it under $100 or above?

[brent]

No we do not charge at all. We consider it an added perk for bringing your companies printing to us. In these days of hard economic times...it just seems like a good differentiater to chose our company instead of another bidding on the same account.

Please it really frees up alot of typesetting time for us. We have some clients that sent us 20-30 cards at a time very often. In the past we would have to typeset, send out proofs, then wait while they are being approved, often taking days.

Now, they just type their orders online, get a pdf proof instantaneous, submit the order and we go to press, no muss, no fuss.